Trump draws boos at Catholic dinner

NEW YORK — A Manhattan society crowd on Thursday night turned on Donald Trump as he used his appearance at an annual roast-style fundraiser for Catholic charities to jab Hillary Clinton, seated just a few feet away, as “corrupt,” and to crack that she “hates Catholics” and profiteered from her foundation’s charity work in Haiti.

At several points during the white-tie dinner in the ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria hotel, Trump drew boos, and when he made his crack about Catholics, someone yelled from the crowd of 1,500 “finish.”

A night after a fiery debate between the two presidential candidates in Las Vegas, raw feelings crept into an event — Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation — typically known for light-hearted political jabs.

Clinton also drew some groans with shots at Trump over his comments about women and questions about his net worth, but her routine was far more hokey and self-deprecating, and much better received.

As attendees filed out of the white-tie affair, several could be overheard remarking that Trump’s speech seemed badly off-key.

“He didn’t quite understand the audience,” said the veteran GOP operative Ed Rollins, who is running a super PAC supporting Trump. “To be funny, you have to understand the audience.”

Trump had the audience laughing early, including with a crack about his wife Melania’s much-critiqued convention speech, which was quickly revealed to have cribbed heavily from First Lady Michelle Obama’s 2008 convention speech.

“Michelle Obama gives a speech and everyone loves it, they think it’s great,” he said. “My wife Melania gives the exact same speech and people get on her case, and I don’t get it!” he said to raucous applause. “And it wasn’t her fault! Stand up, Melania, come on. She took a lot of abuse,” Trump said, adding, “oh, I’m in trouble when I go home tonight. She didn’t know about that one.”

But that was by far the high point for Trump, who then veered into a riff that was part stump speech and part uncomfortable stand-up.

“Hillary is so corrupt,” Trump said to boos, “she got kicked of the Watergate Commission. How corrupt do you have to be to get kicked off the Watergate commission? Pretty corrupt.”

Echoing one of main talking points, he continued, “Hillary is, and has been, in politics since the ‘70s. What’s her pitch? The economy is busted, the government is corrupt. Washington has failed. Vote for me, I have been working on these problems for 30 years, I can fix it, she says.”

Undeterred, Trump continued, “Here she is tonight in public pretending not to hate Catholics,” a line that was met with perhaps the loudest boos of the night, and that prompted one man to yell “finish.”

In election years, the Al Smith dinner, as it’s known, typically attracts both major presidential candidates. But veteran New York political journalists, for whom the dinner is an annual routine, remarked they’d never seen any past speakers booed quite so aggressively.

Clinton spoke after Trump, and began by poking fun at some of the controversies that have dogged her campaign, including questions about her health and paid speeches, as well as her assertion — for which she quickly apologized — that half of Trump’s supporters belong in a “basket of deplorables.”

“I took a break from my rigorous nap schedule to be here,” she said, adding that the audience should be grateful. “Usually I charge a lot for speeches like this.”

Remarking that she has personal relationships with many in attendance, she said, “I just want to put you all in basket of adorables.” And praising the spiffy attire of the men in attendance, she said, “you all look so good in your tuxes … or, as I call, them formal pantsuits.”